Nightmare journey

the Preakness Bay people had been exactly enthusiastic about the new order of things; and they were eager to terminate all the programs instigated by a tainted General. Even if some man with insight were to be elected to her post, he would not dare suggest the reactivation of researches and experiments that had originally been proposed by a mutant. She mourned the coming era of shame, from which her people would never pass, and she damned herself for her desires, which had in the end led to her discovery by Kolpei Zenentha.
    As the time for her torture and death grew near, however, she began to think less of the people of the enclave and more of herself. She did not want to die. She might be tainted, a child of the Ruiner, with no hope now of eternal salvation, but she wanted to hold onto this world anyway. It was a reaction that surprised her. She soon reasoned, however, that if one were to be damned upon death, no matter what, it was best to live in this world as long as one could. The sooner death came, the sooner came hell.
    She knew that Jask Zinn, the last esper found in the enclave, had killed his guards with his mental powers and escaped. She tried to tap similar abilities in herself but could do no more than read the minds of those around her.
    On the morning of the Purification Ceremony she was taken from her cell to the main theater on the first level, where she was stripped and clamped to a large slate table whose edges were channeled with blood gutters. To begin with, as the congregation chanted, she was ritualistically slashed with scalpels, decorated with traditional religious signs that made her blood flow freely.
    They daubed salt in her wounds.
    When she passed out, she was revived.
    A waste of supplies, she thought.
    Then, when she began to laugh hysterically, tossing her pretty head from side to side, the congregation and the priests were certain that this was a sign of the Ruiner's presence and that he was mocking Lady Nature's people. They chanted louder and ordered the preparation of the Executioner's Pendulum somewhat sooner than they ordinarily might have. As the tenor of Merka Shanly's laugh grew madder and madder, they looked nervously this way and that, wondering if the Ruiner would dare make a direct appearance in this holy hall.
    At the penultimate moment, as the Pendulum was moved into place above the table, their worst fears were realized. A mammoth, shapeless black being materialized in the center of the altar, floating in the air. It moved down the front of the church toward the slate table, scattering the priests before. The straps circling Merka Shanly's ankles and wrists snapped loose. At this, those last few brave souls in the audience turned and fled, shouting as hysterically as the girl had done moments before.
    Merka Shanly lay still, looking up at the Ruiner, more terrified than those who had been able to flee.
    The Presence 'pathed images of reassurance.
    “You're the Ruiner?”
    It 'pathed a negative concept, then presented a brief, imagistic history of itself and its purpose there. When it found that she was frightened by its magical appearance in the center of the altar, it 'pathed images of its ship and of the teleportation equipment on board, tried to encapsulate the theories of instantaneous travel in nonverbal images and left her more confused than frightened-which was some improvement anyway.
    “And what will you do to me now?” she asked.
    It 'pathed the images of other worlds, other stars, other races of intelligent beings.
    “I don't know if I want-”
    It swept forth, scooped her within the effect of its teleportation field and, turning, popped out of the temple and back to the starship below the courtyard in the city of Velvet Bay in the nation of Caloria Sunshine, across an entire continent. There, Merka stepped from the transmission booth into an enormous room in which two hundred other human beings-some Pure and some tainted-were sitting and standing in groups, obviously involved in conversation but not making any sound at all. These were the others the Presence had so far located on its search of the Earth; it went, now, to look for still others, leaving Merka Shanly alone.
    Jask woke in a softly lighted room, in the middle of an invisible bed of force webs, which held him more comfortably than any mattress he had ever slept on before. He smacked his lips and wondered how he had gotten into such a place as this, when he abruptly remembered the flash of light,